The pathogenesis of Functional Dyspepsia (FD) remains unclear, appears diverse and is thus inadequately understood. Akin to other functional gastrointestinal disorders, research has demonstrated an association betwe...The pathogenesis of Functional Dyspepsia (FD) remains unclear, appears diverse and is thus inadequately understood. Akin to other functional gastrointestinal disorders, research has demonstrated an association between this common diagnosis and psychosocial factors and psychiatric morbidity. Conceptualising the relevance of these factors within the syndrome of FD requires application of the biopsychosocial model of disease. Using this paradigm, dysregulation of the reciprocal communication between the brain and the gut is central to symptom generation, interpretation and exacerbation. Appreciation and understanding of the neurobiological correlates of various psychological states is also relevant. The view that psychosocial factors exert their influence in FD predominantly through motivation of health care seeking also persists. This appears too one-dimensional an assertion in light of the evidence available supporting a more intdnsic aetiological link. Evolving understanding of pathogenic mechanisms and the heterogeneous nature of the syndrome will facilitate effective management. Co-morbid psychiatric illness warrants treatment with conventional therapies. Acknowledging the relevance of psychosocial variables in FD, the degree of which is subject to vadation, has implications for assessment and management. Available evidence suggests psychological therapies may benefit FD patients particularly those with chronic symptoms. The rationale for use of psychotropic medications in FD is apparent but the evidence base to support the use of antidepressant pharmacotherapy is to date limited.展开更多
The purpose of this paper is to make available for occidental lecturers a kind of synthesis of the information we accumulated over more than twenty years about horse breeding in Central Asia. It is also a trans-discip...The purpose of this paper is to make available for occidental lecturers a kind of synthesis of the information we accumulated over more than twenty years about horse breeding in Central Asia. It is also a trans-disciplinary approach mostly based on French bibliography and personal experiences. We will give a new perspective on the early time history of horse breeding to introduce the current breeding of horses in herds in Central Asia. We will continue with the description of the diet of the nomads and the central place taken by mare's milk in their culture. This induced rituals but also some medical aspects. These latter can now be partly explained with current modem studies. We will finally discuss on the prospects of horse milk products in the new globalised world.展开更多
As Chinese cities rapidly transformed themselves into consumerist societies,the relationship between consumers and consumption space under stratification has become a new research area in the field of urban social geo...As Chinese cities rapidly transformed themselves into consumerist societies,the relationship between consumers and consumption space under stratification has become a new research area in the field of urban social geography.Based on a consumer behavior analysis,this study explores the relationship between consumption space and the social strata of consumers in typical shopping malls in Guangzhou where the first shopping mall in China was built.The result shows that shopping malls have performed significant constructive functions of organizing consumers from different social classes into different consumption space.For middle-and upper-class consumers,the function of shopping malls centers on utilitarian consumption,identity recognition,and identity construction;whereas for lower-class consumers,its function revolves around pleasure and enjoyment.The symbolism of consumption space is the underlying reason for shopping malls to have their social constructive function.The findings of this research suggest that:1) a shopping mall is a productive consumption space and a geographical space with subjectivity;2) the micro-location of a shopping mall has social construction function;and 3) symbolic consumption is the core of social construction.展开更多
1Since the middle of last century, the world has entered consumer society. Decided by consumerism, hedonic consumption has got popular. Hedonic consumption makes people be personalized during consumption and brings a ...1Since the middle of last century, the world has entered consumer society. Decided by consumerism, hedonic consumption has got popular. Hedonic consumption makes people be personalized during consumption and brings a high degree of prosperity in consumption. But at the same time, for the materialization logic in consumerism, people has been enslaved by substance and involved in the vicious circle about unlimited demand for substance, which brought a series of problems in consumption. Nowadays, sharing consumption is rapidly developing, which leads to the change of consumption values. The application of big data in the consumer area, through bringing "big data sense" and solving information barrier, is one of the most important reasons to cause the change. This change can help to establish a fair consumption environment and harmonious consumption relations, which will make the economic development faster and better展开更多
This paper calculates the land (including water area) requirement for food consumption in both balanced andactual diet in China by ecological footprint analysis. To determine whether logical and actual food demands ar...This paper calculates the land (including water area) requirement for food consumption in both balanced andactual diet in China by ecological footprint analysis. To determine whether logical and actual food demands are withinnatural regenerative ability, carrying capacity (excluding forestry production) is also calculated. Results show that actualdiet patterns were ecologically friendly in the period of 1982-2004 in China, mainly because of the rural moderate dietpatterns. But actual per capita footprint already overran its corresponding logic value of 0.976ha in urban areas in 2002.Productive areas for food production can satisfy the land requirement for actual diet patterns during the researchingperiod in China, nevertheless cannot satisfy that for balanced diet pattern or solve the problem of unbalanced ecologicalfootprint. The continual rising ecological footprint of food consumption in both rural and urban areas indicates that percapita footprint will keep on increasing in China and even may be more than the suggested logic value if no relevantcountermeasures are made to regulate diet patterns. Strictly speaking, China is facing food shortage, both in quality andin quantity.展开更多
The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements has been a topic that has interested many advertising researchers. It has been long debated on which advertising method is most effective. The purpose of this study was to c...The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements has been a topic that has interested many advertising researchers. It has been long debated on which advertising method is most effective. The purpose of this study was to conclude whether or not advertising agencies and social cause organizations are obtaining the results of these studies and using them in magazine advertisement campaigns and which one of these advertisements is more prevalent in magazines. Advertisements were examined from two American magazines, W Magazine and Good Housekeeping. The results of the study showed that celebrtiy endoresments have been featured in magazine advertisements more in recent years that products are endorsed by celebrities more than social causes and a majority of these endoresments are for products that affect a consumer's self-image.展开更多
Consumption is an active process that engages the social world for individuals to make use of certain products. For many, the living room is the locus of product use, social activities, cultural values, and the person...Consumption is an active process that engages the social world for individuals to make use of certain products. For many, the living room is the locus of product use, social activities, cultural values, and the personal narrative of the people who live in it. Consumers engage with their furniture in order for it to function effectively for them: It is thus used to furnish both the home and the self as well. Creating a certain living space with a particular use of furniture and interior decoration is the precise way in which the resident forms its arrangements, and builds a relationship with the surrounding objects in that living space. This activity, I argue, positions the residents in the process of presenting their personality characteristics and cultural identity. The Ethnographic approach is most appropriate methodology for research into such a personal area: the living room within the domestic environment. The topic of this research falls between different fields of studies including consumerism and media. This research reviews the influence of advertising in magazines and furniture shops on the meaning of living space design and how that encourages higher levels of consumption.展开更多
The purpose of this paper is to consider and analyze the profile of modem consumer (careful to consequences of its purchasing decisions in terms of social, ethical and environmental aspects), in order to identify th...The purpose of this paper is to consider and analyze the profile of modem consumer (careful to consequences of its purchasing decisions in terms of social, ethical and environmental aspects), in order to identify the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for consumer through a study on critical, ethical and responsible purchase of food products. The problem is investigated empirically through a choice experiment method, which is a stated preference method based on a household survey, and through the analysis of the survey on consumer perception. In the food industry, the choice of goods and services requires the consumer decisions that seem to be increasingly dependent on factors not attributable only to the quality/price relationship, instead, they also involve issues directly related to ethics, environment and protection of labor. Today, companies do not limit themselves to undertake CSR, but often they choose to bring the stakeholders aware of such conduct, in an attempt to improve corporate reputation and business results. Therefore, it is to outline a synergy between companies' businesses and consumer's choice. The findings are based on data from an Italian region, and as such are not directly extendable elsewhere, although they may result to be of interest to other industrialized areas. The paper offers a comprehensive view of relationship between consumers and theme of social responsibility, and how they interface with firms (especially agri-food big companies) and their products; role that CSR plays in relation to the impact it can have on the consumption of food products from buyers; importance that the consumer gives to CSR when purchasing a food product and consumers' receptiveness towards sustainable strategies; knowledge degree of particular food categories; consumer willingness to purchase ethically oriented companies' products.展开更多
Nowadays, the body seems to be the perfect object of consumption. People use it to define themselves but also as a vehicle that can send signs to others in the hope that their body will be a factor of social integrati...Nowadays, the body seems to be the perfect object of consumption. People use it to define themselves but also as a vehicle that can send signs to others in the hope that their body will be a factor of social integration and social recognition. Hence we can observe the development of practices of body transformations which go along with the philosophy of the society in which everything seems possible for everybody, with no limit whatsoever. Indeed, if you want your body to be seen, you have to "produce" it before. The practice of bodybuilding sustains efforts in that direction: historically born and developed along with the consumption society, it came to embody its values. The analysis is based on qualitative methodology that is observations in three bodybuilding Gyms and 30 interviews with bodybuilders in France. The results show that bodybuilding reflects the consumption society's norms, that is a practice in which the body is in tension between imitation and distinction, hence showing the will to be "like others but in better" thanks to the production of a nice and "massive" body. Such a dimension could sometimes be dialectical, when the body becomes a source of alienation.展开更多
The producers-especially industrial-of artifacts view them as conveying distinct meanings, and they surround them with discourses to support their representation (marketing, packaging, and advertising). Yet, these s...The producers-especially industrial-of artifacts view them as conveying distinct meanings, and they surround them with discourses to support their representation (marketing, packaging, and advertising). Yet, these superimposed meanings say nothing about what the objects signify for their users. How are the objects manipulated by those who use them? Only when both the meanings assigned by the manufacturers and those attributed by the users are known is it possible to determine the difference or similarity between the meanings imposed on objects from above and those produced by their users. We, thus, shift from an economic conception of consumption to one which emphasizes the cultural and communicative roles essential for granting material objects their social protagonism, freeing them from subordination to their producers without imprisoning them passively in the network of meanings constructed by consumers. Emphasizing that things have biographies, which can be more or less fully reconstructed and recounted, is useful not only for understanding the role that material objects perform in determining social phenomena independently from the intentions of their producers, but also for demonstrating the mutable character of their social presence. Objects, therefore, should be considered, not as commodities, but as materials for the social construction of reality, as provisional and negotiable meanings. It is precisely the provisional and negotiable nature of objects that makes them ontologically ambiguous things which communicate their own values, points of view, and so on.展开更多
Every crisis has meant the decline and death of the old things, but also indicates that the birth of new things and grow. Energy crisis and environmental crisis prompted human thinking, looking for a way out. While fo...Every crisis has meant the decline and death of the old things, but also indicates that the birth of new things and grow. Energy crisis and environmental crisis prompted human thinking, looking for a way out. While fossil energy in the past hundred years time, the development of human society has made a huge role, but due to the limitations of its own: the non-renewable nature, environmental pollution and energy politicized, destined to be replaced. New energy in a tough energy and environmental situation become a new impetus for economic development. Of course, the new energy present due to various reasons, in the proportion of human energy consumption structure, the proportion accounted for far less than fossil fuels, technical issues, storage and transportation issues and cost issues still restrict the development and popularization of new energy. Nuclear, solar, wind, tidal energy and hydrogen energy are all new areas. Which in terms of nuclear and solar energy technology, the use is still relatively mature, the market prospects of other energy sources is also very tempting, in this paper, standing industrial perspective analysis of the market prospects of new energy solar and hydrogen energy.展开更多
Consumption-oriented daily life resulted in new forms of consumption spaces in many cities. Among these spaces, shopping malls are significant with their improved physical and social environments for consumption and l...Consumption-oriented daily life resulted in new forms of consumption spaces in many cities. Among these spaces, shopping malls are significant with their improved physical and social environments for consumption and leisure for all the family. One of the important marginalized groups, to whom the mall appeals, are young people. Within this framework, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the consumption and leisure practices and experiences of young people in Turkey from their point of view. Migros, a shopping mall in Ankara, was chosen as the site for this research, where both consumption and leisure practices are overlapping within the same space. The research was carried out through observation and in-depth interviews with 104 teenagers. The results indicated that shopping malls were the main leisure and consumption site for teenagers. Teenagers' choice of malls as their favorite leisure and consumption space were found to be the result of some factors such as restrictions which were provoked by their parents, security concerns, location of the mall, and accessibility and limited financial resources. These factors seemed to lead to restrictions in the choice of places to spend their leisure time and limit the use of leisure spaces other than malls. As a consumer group in the mall space, teenagers had some complaints about the prices of facilities which seemed to be influential on their choices of consumption and leisure practices in the mall environment.展开更多
The popular singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen is a product of the working-class family, and his songs often creatively capture not only working-class life but also workers' alienation from their labor. In an un...The popular singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen is a product of the working-class family, and his songs often creatively capture not only working-class life but also workers' alienation from their labor. In an unsystematic way, Springsteen's lyrics portray how modem workers are alienated from the products of their labor, the process of working, other workers, and ultimately, from themselves. Although Springsteen primarily has blue-collar, industrial workers in mind, his thoughts on the alienation of labor continue to have relevance for workers in the American consumer society and in the contemporary global economy as well.展开更多
With the economic development and social progress, the attention of the people of the ecological civilization has been improved. People's consumption patterns have been gradually improved, and the recent low-carbon t...With the economic development and social progress, the attention of the people of the ecological civilization has been improved. People's consumption patterns have been gradually improved, and the recent low-carbon technologies and low-carbon consumption go constantly into people's lives. The development of tourism is the manifestation of the pursuit of ecological civilization. It is a natural use of low-carbon technologies, and is the way the economy of low-carbon consumption. And the low-carbon tourism in further also becomes a necessity.展开更多
Happiness, as much a poetic as a philosophical, sociological, and psychological concept, has been, through the ages, at the heart of the needs each individual seeks to fulfil. But today, in a world dominated by techno...Happiness, as much a poetic as a philosophical, sociological, and psychological concept, has been, through the ages, at the heart of the needs each individual seeks to fulfil. But today, in a world dominated by technology, driven by productivity and dictated by efficiency, what about Happiness? Does it feature in works of fiction in any significant way? May it not have adopted different guises? ls that "duty of happiness" that Pascal Bruckner was talking about present in the French novel of the 20th-21th centuries? And if it is, has its force strengthened or weakened? This article will discuss the French Novels (of the 20th-21th centuries) that are devoted to or associated with Happiness in a direct or indirect manner. It will contextualize and analyze the transformation of Happiness, within the context of the historical and social events that influenced that period: the Holocaust, consumerism, postmodernism, structural social changes, the various as yet unarticulated new modes of life they created, and so on. To that end, this article will explore the discursive philosophical concept of happiness and its influence on the formation of the French novel. In so doing it will focus on the explicit discourse behind the motifs, the choices made in the process of writing, and the attitudes taken, considering the theme of happiness. Doing so, a significant discussion will be included regarding the paths of happiness, its agents, and the nature of the motifs and metaphors linked to the theme of happiness. The author will also address the dialectical role of the happiness theme in the constitution of an emerging literary discourse reflected in the French novel. By exploring the manifestation of the dogmas, ideas of the intellectual leaders of the 20th century (e.g., Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus) as well as the ones of the 21th century (e.g., Pascal Bruckner, Andr6 Comte-Sponville, Gilles Lipovetsky) new insights concerning the hybrid nature of the supposedly "authentic happiness" will be revealed. The author intend to inspect the theme of Happiness around four dialectical axes as a relevant ethical basis for delimiting the various fields of research: (1) Love, passion, and conjugality; (2) Ageing; (3) "The experience of everydayness"; and (4) "The era of emptiness". Focusing on the narratives, the article takes into account their specificity in the four distinct fields, all connected to existential and ethical issues, Finally, this article will attempt to analyse the assumed role of literature as a conduit of cultural awareness.展开更多
Growing environmental and social evils made the people around the globe realize the fact that their luxurious lifestyle and irresponsible consumption have destroyed the earth beyond its natural healing capacity. Magni...Growing environmental and social evils made the people around the globe realize the fact that their luxurious lifestyle and irresponsible consumption have destroyed the earth beyond its natural healing capacity. Magnitude and intensity of the repercussion pressurized them to understand sustainable and socially responsible consumption that has a direct bearing on the possible solution to the problems. Hence, this paper attempts to investigate the effect of age, education, income and gender on socially responsible consumption behavior of Indian consumers and whether the advertisements with social responsibility theme work better among socially responsible consumers. The exploratory study has been executed on a sample of 250 respondents from Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by adopting convenience sampling method. Univariate ANOVA {:Analysis of Variance) has been applied to test the research expectations. Results indicate that demographic variables get less to do with the socially responsible consumption behavior of the respondents and social responsible theme as a communication strategy can reach the target audience irrespective of their concern for socially resnonsible ~on^lJrnntion展开更多
The tourism consumption behavior of the young people has significant effect on the present social tourism consumption behavior. Intensifying the research on tourism consumption behavior of the youth group helps to exp...The tourism consumption behavior of the young people has significant effect on the present social tourism consumption behavior. Intensifying the research on tourism consumption behavior of the youth group helps to explore the hot spot of tourism consumption, and designing specific marketing programs and taping into consumption potential is the key to market development. The research takes the university students in the youth group as an example to analyze the features and difference of tourism consumption behavior and observe tourism consumption marketing of the university students, for providing reference for the expansion of tourism market.展开更多
文摘The pathogenesis of Functional Dyspepsia (FD) remains unclear, appears diverse and is thus inadequately understood. Akin to other functional gastrointestinal disorders, research has demonstrated an association between this common diagnosis and psychosocial factors and psychiatric morbidity. Conceptualising the relevance of these factors within the syndrome of FD requires application of the biopsychosocial model of disease. Using this paradigm, dysregulation of the reciprocal communication between the brain and the gut is central to symptom generation, interpretation and exacerbation. Appreciation and understanding of the neurobiological correlates of various psychological states is also relevant. The view that psychosocial factors exert their influence in FD predominantly through motivation of health care seeking also persists. This appears too one-dimensional an assertion in light of the evidence available supporting a more intdnsic aetiological link. Evolving understanding of pathogenic mechanisms and the heterogeneous nature of the syndrome will facilitate effective management. Co-morbid psychiatric illness warrants treatment with conventional therapies. Acknowledging the relevance of psychosocial variables in FD, the degree of which is subject to vadation, has implications for assessment and management. Available evidence suggests psychological therapies may benefit FD patients particularly those with chronic symptoms. The rationale for use of psychotropic medications in FD is apparent but the evidence base to support the use of antidepressant pharmacotherapy is to date limited.
文摘The purpose of this paper is to make available for occidental lecturers a kind of synthesis of the information we accumulated over more than twenty years about horse breeding in Central Asia. It is also a trans-disciplinary approach mostly based on French bibliography and personal experiences. We will give a new perspective on the early time history of horse breeding to introduce the current breeding of horses in herds in Central Asia. We will continue with the description of the diet of the nomads and the central place taken by mare's milk in their culture. This induced rituals but also some medical aspects. These latter can now be partly explained with current modem studies. We will finally discuss on the prospects of horse milk products in the new globalised world.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.40971088,40401018)Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of China(No.09YJAZH105)Graduate Education Reform Project of SUN Yat-Sen University(No.ZGEI026)
文摘As Chinese cities rapidly transformed themselves into consumerist societies,the relationship between consumers and consumption space under stratification has become a new research area in the field of urban social geography.Based on a consumer behavior analysis,this study explores the relationship between consumption space and the social strata of consumers in typical shopping malls in Guangzhou where the first shopping mall in China was built.The result shows that shopping malls have performed significant constructive functions of organizing consumers from different social classes into different consumption space.For middle-and upper-class consumers,the function of shopping malls centers on utilitarian consumption,identity recognition,and identity construction;whereas for lower-class consumers,its function revolves around pleasure and enjoyment.The symbolism of consumption space is the underlying reason for shopping malls to have their social constructive function.The findings of this research suggest that:1) a shopping mall is a productive consumption space and a geographical space with subjectivity;2) the micro-location of a shopping mall has social construction function;and 3) symbolic consumption is the core of social construction.
文摘1Since the middle of last century, the world has entered consumer society. Decided by consumerism, hedonic consumption has got popular. Hedonic consumption makes people be personalized during consumption and brings a high degree of prosperity in consumption. But at the same time, for the materialization logic in consumerism, people has been enslaved by substance and involved in the vicious circle about unlimited demand for substance, which brought a series of problems in consumption. Nowadays, sharing consumption is rapidly developing, which leads to the change of consumption values. The application of big data in the consumer area, through bringing "big data sense" and solving information barrier, is one of the most important reasons to cause the change. This change can help to establish a fair consumption environment and harmonious consumption relations, which will make the economic development faster and better
文摘This paper calculates the land (including water area) requirement for food consumption in both balanced andactual diet in China by ecological footprint analysis. To determine whether logical and actual food demands are withinnatural regenerative ability, carrying capacity (excluding forestry production) is also calculated. Results show that actualdiet patterns were ecologically friendly in the period of 1982-2004 in China, mainly because of the rural moderate dietpatterns. But actual per capita footprint already overran its corresponding logic value of 0.976ha in urban areas in 2002.Productive areas for food production can satisfy the land requirement for actual diet patterns during the researchingperiod in China, nevertheless cannot satisfy that for balanced diet pattern or solve the problem of unbalanced ecologicalfootprint. The continual rising ecological footprint of food consumption in both rural and urban areas indicates that percapita footprint will keep on increasing in China and even may be more than the suggested logic value if no relevantcountermeasures are made to regulate diet patterns. Strictly speaking, China is facing food shortage, both in quality andin quantity.
文摘The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements has been a topic that has interested many advertising researchers. It has been long debated on which advertising method is most effective. The purpose of this study was to conclude whether or not advertising agencies and social cause organizations are obtaining the results of these studies and using them in magazine advertisement campaigns and which one of these advertisements is more prevalent in magazines. Advertisements were examined from two American magazines, W Magazine and Good Housekeeping. The results of the study showed that celebrtiy endoresments have been featured in magazine advertisements more in recent years that products are endorsed by celebrities more than social causes and a majority of these endoresments are for products that affect a consumer's self-image.
文摘Consumption is an active process that engages the social world for individuals to make use of certain products. For many, the living room is the locus of product use, social activities, cultural values, and the personal narrative of the people who live in it. Consumers engage with their furniture in order for it to function effectively for them: It is thus used to furnish both the home and the self as well. Creating a certain living space with a particular use of furniture and interior decoration is the precise way in which the resident forms its arrangements, and builds a relationship with the surrounding objects in that living space. This activity, I argue, positions the residents in the process of presenting their personality characteristics and cultural identity. The Ethnographic approach is most appropriate methodology for research into such a personal area: the living room within the domestic environment. The topic of this research falls between different fields of studies including consumerism and media. This research reviews the influence of advertising in magazines and furniture shops on the meaning of living space design and how that encourages higher levels of consumption.
文摘The purpose of this paper is to consider and analyze the profile of modem consumer (careful to consequences of its purchasing decisions in terms of social, ethical and environmental aspects), in order to identify the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for consumer through a study on critical, ethical and responsible purchase of food products. The problem is investigated empirically through a choice experiment method, which is a stated preference method based on a household survey, and through the analysis of the survey on consumer perception. In the food industry, the choice of goods and services requires the consumer decisions that seem to be increasingly dependent on factors not attributable only to the quality/price relationship, instead, they also involve issues directly related to ethics, environment and protection of labor. Today, companies do not limit themselves to undertake CSR, but often they choose to bring the stakeholders aware of such conduct, in an attempt to improve corporate reputation and business results. Therefore, it is to outline a synergy between companies' businesses and consumer's choice. The findings are based on data from an Italian region, and as such are not directly extendable elsewhere, although they may result to be of interest to other industrialized areas. The paper offers a comprehensive view of relationship between consumers and theme of social responsibility, and how they interface with firms (especially agri-food big companies) and their products; role that CSR plays in relation to the impact it can have on the consumption of food products from buyers; importance that the consumer gives to CSR when purchasing a food product and consumers' receptiveness towards sustainable strategies; knowledge degree of particular food categories; consumer willingness to purchase ethically oriented companies' products.
文摘Nowadays, the body seems to be the perfect object of consumption. People use it to define themselves but also as a vehicle that can send signs to others in the hope that their body will be a factor of social integration and social recognition. Hence we can observe the development of practices of body transformations which go along with the philosophy of the society in which everything seems possible for everybody, with no limit whatsoever. Indeed, if you want your body to be seen, you have to "produce" it before. The practice of bodybuilding sustains efforts in that direction: historically born and developed along with the consumption society, it came to embody its values. The analysis is based on qualitative methodology that is observations in three bodybuilding Gyms and 30 interviews with bodybuilders in France. The results show that bodybuilding reflects the consumption society's norms, that is a practice in which the body is in tension between imitation and distinction, hence showing the will to be "like others but in better" thanks to the production of a nice and "massive" body. Such a dimension could sometimes be dialectical, when the body becomes a source of alienation.
文摘The producers-especially industrial-of artifacts view them as conveying distinct meanings, and they surround them with discourses to support their representation (marketing, packaging, and advertising). Yet, these superimposed meanings say nothing about what the objects signify for their users. How are the objects manipulated by those who use them? Only when both the meanings assigned by the manufacturers and those attributed by the users are known is it possible to determine the difference or similarity between the meanings imposed on objects from above and those produced by their users. We, thus, shift from an economic conception of consumption to one which emphasizes the cultural and communicative roles essential for granting material objects their social protagonism, freeing them from subordination to their producers without imprisoning them passively in the network of meanings constructed by consumers. Emphasizing that things have biographies, which can be more or less fully reconstructed and recounted, is useful not only for understanding the role that material objects perform in determining social phenomena independently from the intentions of their producers, but also for demonstrating the mutable character of their social presence. Objects, therefore, should be considered, not as commodities, but as materials for the social construction of reality, as provisional and negotiable meanings. It is precisely the provisional and negotiable nature of objects that makes them ontologically ambiguous things which communicate their own values, points of view, and so on.
文摘Every crisis has meant the decline and death of the old things, but also indicates that the birth of new things and grow. Energy crisis and environmental crisis prompted human thinking, looking for a way out. While fossil energy in the past hundred years time, the development of human society has made a huge role, but due to the limitations of its own: the non-renewable nature, environmental pollution and energy politicized, destined to be replaced. New energy in a tough energy and environmental situation become a new impetus for economic development. Of course, the new energy present due to various reasons, in the proportion of human energy consumption structure, the proportion accounted for far less than fossil fuels, technical issues, storage and transportation issues and cost issues still restrict the development and popularization of new energy. Nuclear, solar, wind, tidal energy and hydrogen energy are all new areas. Which in terms of nuclear and solar energy technology, the use is still relatively mature, the market prospects of other energy sources is also very tempting, in this paper, standing industrial perspective analysis of the market prospects of new energy solar and hydrogen energy.
文摘Consumption-oriented daily life resulted in new forms of consumption spaces in many cities. Among these spaces, shopping malls are significant with their improved physical and social environments for consumption and leisure for all the family. One of the important marginalized groups, to whom the mall appeals, are young people. Within this framework, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the consumption and leisure practices and experiences of young people in Turkey from their point of view. Migros, a shopping mall in Ankara, was chosen as the site for this research, where both consumption and leisure practices are overlapping within the same space. The research was carried out through observation and in-depth interviews with 104 teenagers. The results indicated that shopping malls were the main leisure and consumption site for teenagers. Teenagers' choice of malls as their favorite leisure and consumption space were found to be the result of some factors such as restrictions which were provoked by their parents, security concerns, location of the mall, and accessibility and limited financial resources. These factors seemed to lead to restrictions in the choice of places to spend their leisure time and limit the use of leisure spaces other than malls. As a consumer group in the mall space, teenagers had some complaints about the prices of facilities which seemed to be influential on their choices of consumption and leisure practices in the mall environment.
文摘The popular singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen is a product of the working-class family, and his songs often creatively capture not only working-class life but also workers' alienation from their labor. In an unsystematic way, Springsteen's lyrics portray how modem workers are alienated from the products of their labor, the process of working, other workers, and ultimately, from themselves. Although Springsteen primarily has blue-collar, industrial workers in mind, his thoughts on the alienation of labor continue to have relevance for workers in the American consumer society and in the contemporary global economy as well.
文摘With the economic development and social progress, the attention of the people of the ecological civilization has been improved. People's consumption patterns have been gradually improved, and the recent low-carbon technologies and low-carbon consumption go constantly into people's lives. The development of tourism is the manifestation of the pursuit of ecological civilization. It is a natural use of low-carbon technologies, and is the way the economy of low-carbon consumption. And the low-carbon tourism in further also becomes a necessity.
文摘Happiness, as much a poetic as a philosophical, sociological, and psychological concept, has been, through the ages, at the heart of the needs each individual seeks to fulfil. But today, in a world dominated by technology, driven by productivity and dictated by efficiency, what about Happiness? Does it feature in works of fiction in any significant way? May it not have adopted different guises? ls that "duty of happiness" that Pascal Bruckner was talking about present in the French novel of the 20th-21th centuries? And if it is, has its force strengthened or weakened? This article will discuss the French Novels (of the 20th-21th centuries) that are devoted to or associated with Happiness in a direct or indirect manner. It will contextualize and analyze the transformation of Happiness, within the context of the historical and social events that influenced that period: the Holocaust, consumerism, postmodernism, structural social changes, the various as yet unarticulated new modes of life they created, and so on. To that end, this article will explore the discursive philosophical concept of happiness and its influence on the formation of the French novel. In so doing it will focus on the explicit discourse behind the motifs, the choices made in the process of writing, and the attitudes taken, considering the theme of happiness. Doing so, a significant discussion will be included regarding the paths of happiness, its agents, and the nature of the motifs and metaphors linked to the theme of happiness. The author will also address the dialectical role of the happiness theme in the constitution of an emerging literary discourse reflected in the French novel. By exploring the manifestation of the dogmas, ideas of the intellectual leaders of the 20th century (e.g., Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus) as well as the ones of the 21th century (e.g., Pascal Bruckner, Andr6 Comte-Sponville, Gilles Lipovetsky) new insights concerning the hybrid nature of the supposedly "authentic happiness" will be revealed. The author intend to inspect the theme of Happiness around four dialectical axes as a relevant ethical basis for delimiting the various fields of research: (1) Love, passion, and conjugality; (2) Ageing; (3) "The experience of everydayness"; and (4) "The era of emptiness". Focusing on the narratives, the article takes into account their specificity in the four distinct fields, all connected to existential and ethical issues, Finally, this article will attempt to analyse the assumed role of literature as a conduit of cultural awareness.
文摘Growing environmental and social evils made the people around the globe realize the fact that their luxurious lifestyle and irresponsible consumption have destroyed the earth beyond its natural healing capacity. Magnitude and intensity of the repercussion pressurized them to understand sustainable and socially responsible consumption that has a direct bearing on the possible solution to the problems. Hence, this paper attempts to investigate the effect of age, education, income and gender on socially responsible consumption behavior of Indian consumers and whether the advertisements with social responsibility theme work better among socially responsible consumers. The exploratory study has been executed on a sample of 250 respondents from Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by adopting convenience sampling method. Univariate ANOVA {:Analysis of Variance) has been applied to test the research expectations. Results indicate that demographic variables get less to do with the socially responsible consumption behavior of the respondents and social responsible theme as a communication strategy can reach the target audience irrespective of their concern for socially resnonsible ~on^lJrnntion
文摘The tourism consumption behavior of the young people has significant effect on the present social tourism consumption behavior. Intensifying the research on tourism consumption behavior of the youth group helps to explore the hot spot of tourism consumption, and designing specific marketing programs and taping into consumption potential is the key to market development. The research takes the university students in the youth group as an example to analyze the features and difference of tourism consumption behavior and observe tourism consumption marketing of the university students, for providing reference for the expansion of tourism market.